It was long ago in another life that our dear PK came to some strife
Missing his mother’s loving face , he followed her trail from their breeding place…..
His search and their saga – ever so long, told PK quite clearly that something was wrong!
For months on end, that stretched to years, calling through fences with their tears
Across that void – that fierce road,
the trucks, the cars – their rushing load.
But now the best bit will unfold
As Pk’s stories now are told
One early evening waiting near the talking tree for his mother dear, he heard the wrens and bush birds say that to get to the coast there WAS a way
It was very long, and took some skill, and involved a risk of getting killed
Pk ask more from his flying friends, and they told him of roads that had no ends
However if game, they said that PK could travel those roads for part of the way
“Stick to the edges, and watch for the lights they’ll freeze you and fix you and BOY those cars bite”
“So stay in the shadows, and travel with stealth and you’ll get to a place which is full of ill health -
the drained swamps of coastlands” – the refugees called, but take take care of dogs so that you won’t be mauled
God speed you PK, called the Birds of the Land, as he started his journey with their helping hand.
Familiar with Mooball and Cudgerra Creek, his crossing of this place took more than a week.
Then suddenly there he was ,over THAT ROAD – that huge roaring thoroughfare with it’s faceless load.
Now where to begin to start tracking his Mum? Her scent was not there on the road he had come,
so sniffing the breeze in the quiet morning light, he touched on a memory ever so slight.
The “feel” of his mother! It came from these trees- she’d been here before, but it had been some years.
The urge to continue, to follow his nose – led him to a high fence and again more loud roads.
Yet our hero undaunted, his mother he’d find - then suddenly Pk saw one of his kind……..
A cousin – a cousin! There in the tree – he called out “KOALA! it’s PK!…. it’s ME!!”
The cousin’s eye’s opened his nose sniffed PK. Then he slowly pointed north, saying “that is the way”.
Now trembling with fatigues of his open road walk, our darling PK said “so sorry- can’t talk”. For gone were those days of the safe bushland life, now the people of Tweed were giving them strife.
The human machines screamed and roared all the day, the constant truck noise – the people – the fray.
Bravely PK lumbered slowly along, to the east and the north where it felt very wrong.
Something was happening that made PK sick – he’d felt it before, it was like a bad trick.
And there – in the distance, from a tall tree he spied, the lay of King’s Forest. Was it there he could hide?
For all about PK, was nothing but bare – all cleared and flat land and the trees were nowhere! There were fences and houses, and small shrubs and trees, but the way to the forest was filled with disease.
The waters were putrid, the sparse old trees ill. Yet PK kept going, with his strong free will
He “knew” that his Mother would be near this place – this great fading Forest – ( Tweed Coast’s disgrace)
Past cypress and tea tree, our little friend ran, then though a sharp fence and across the bare land
And suddenly there he was facing his MUM! She cried out PK – you really have come!
OH reader, now listen of PK’s delight! To find his dear mother at last – what a sight!
Full adventure was over, he could rest .. he could talk. Then he told his Mama about his “LONG WALK”,
so proud of her son and his clever repose – big roads and big fences- do more than we suppose.
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The above Poem, about Phantom Koala and how he finds his mother and becomes a Hero, reminds us that Koalas are at very high risk here, on the NE Coast of NSW.
The actions and work by the Australian Government has done nothing to save the plight of the Coastal Koala, here in SE QLD and NE NSW. Koala population Numbers are dropping dramatically, and the same habitat destroying development is continuing at an alarming pace, all along the coast.
However: THERE IS A WAY!!!
Download some KOALA info here:- from the EPA, QLD.
“Koala (Phascolartos cinereus) survey and habitat assessment of Lot 4 on RP 35335 Doolong South Rd, Wondunna, Hervey Bay, Queensland / conducted for the Hervey Bay City Council” - by ddwfauna August 2005, is a good start….
” When Phantom Koala was Young - A Koala Saga “ : my wordpress version of the first PK poem at Balance of Faeries blog.
“A Balance of Faeries” 1989 by al at bluecray – a story about koala habitat destruction – little by little – and the consequences
Kings Forest at articles Balance of Faeries blog and more links
Wisdom in the Land blog has Koala Planning Dreaming : a simple guideline for developing land, hand in hand with nature
Kings Forest : articles at bluecray.org and more links
***And, for inspiration……Some beautiful Koala ART WORK and a poem “Winter Koala” by Carol McCormack
